Did you have Intellivision but still wanted an Atari?

[rhindlethereddragon]

It seems the grass is always greener on the other side, doesn't it. I knew people (back in the day) that had Atari's and liked them just fine but still thought the Intellivision was way cool and wished they had one.

 

I didn't actually know anybody who had an Intellivision back then, so I was wondering, did Intellivision owner's look at the Atari the same way, and wish they had one even though the graphics weren't as good?

[IntellivisionDude]

I got my Intellivision II for Christmas in 1983. But before i got it, i did want an Atari. My cousin had one, another friend had one. I was just 10 years old and had no idea there were other video game systems besides Atari, so of course i wanted one. But i don't remember being disappointed opening the Intellivision for Christmas. I remember being excited and never looked back. I was in awe of Burgertime the first time i put it in. My memory is a little foggy but what i do remember is knowing right away the graphics were superior to the Atari and having the feeling of that i owned the better system. Even as a kid i hated the Atari Joystick and actually loved the Intellivision Disc. Even today if i play Atari, i use a Genesis controller.

 

It wasn't until last year that i finally owned an Atari 2600 of my own. And i must say it is 100 times more fun than i remember as a kid. I did have fun playing games like Combat, Outlaw and Maze Craze as a kid with my friend. But i feel like i like the games even more now. It's kind of strange. And now i'm finding and playing games i never did back then. So i do wonder if my perception as kid would of been different if i'd of played Centipede for the 2600 back then (It is currently my favorite 2600 game). I did have Centipede for the Intellivision as kid but it just never played as well as i hoped. Centipede was my favorite Arcade game as a kid so it would of been a major factor to me. I'm sort of glad i didn't ever play it until now or i may have been real sad as a kid since i didn't own an Atari and my mother would of never bought me one.

[rhindlethereddragon]

I got my Intellivision II for Christmas in 1983. But before i got it, i did want an Atari. My cousin had one, another friend had one. I was just 10 years old and had no idea there were other video game systems besides Atari, so of course i wanted one. But i don't remember being disappointed opening the Intellivision for Christmas. I remember being excited and never looked back. I was in awe of Burgertime the first time i put it in. My memory is a little foggy but what i do remember is knowing right away the graphics were superior to the Atari and having the feeling of that i owned the better system. Even as a kid i hated the Atari Joystick and actually loved the Intellivision Disc. Even today if i play Atari, i use a Genesis controller.

 

It wasn't until last year that i finally owned an Atari 2600 of my own. And i must say it is 100 times more fun than i remember as a kid. I did have fun playing games like Combat, Outlaw and Maze Craze as a kid with my friend. But i feel like i like the games even more now. It's kind of strange. And now i'm finding and playing games i never did back then. So i do wonder if my perception as kid would of been different if i'd of played Centipede for the 2600 back then (It is currently my favorite 2600 game). I did have Centipede for the Intellivision as kid but it just never played as well as i hoped. Centipede was my favorite Arcade game as a kid so it would of been a major factor to me. I'm sort of glad i didn't ever play it until now or i may have been real sad as a kid since i didn't own an Atari and my mother would of never bought me one.

 

If Centipede was a major factor then you had the right system. There's no comparison, Intellivision's was excellent.

[+save2600]

Good question. I remember back in the day, my friends and I being pretty happy with what we had. I didn't know anyone that had both systems. Everyone either had a 2600, an INTV, a Colecovision, a C64, Apple ][ or a TI-99/4A. One friend even had an O2. Late 70's through the early 80's, my Uncle was the *only* one I ever knew that had two or more "systems". Really he just had the 2600 adapter for his Colecovision. lol

 

Going by memory here... while someone might have enjoyed another friends' system or particular game, we were cool with just playing whatever over at their house. Good excuse to go over and see your friends more often if you think about it. We might have chided each other over a particular games' coolness once in a while, but we were realistic about it. We knew that ALL systems had their strengths and weaknesses. Well, my buddy that had the O2... K.C. Munchkin seemed kinda cool, but ummm... yeah. That system really blew arse comparatively. Funny... I only remember playing that system once at his house back in the day and I was good with not playing it ever again after that. lol

 

By the mid 80's though, I *did* have both a 2600 and INTV, but everyone I knew was getting out of console gaming then (combination of growing up and personal computers becoming more affordable) and I was always inclined to snag up a good deal when it presented itself.

Edited October 1, 2010 by save2600

[JacobZu7zu7]

I never heard of Intellivision untill I saw it on websites around 8 years ago.

Which is weird. Two my brothers friends, they both hand Colecovisions. So,... I never seen Intellivision before nor on TV.

 

Now I own one, and don't own Colecovision. hahah. I choosen the Intelly, why?? It has the themes I wanted like Tron, Dungeons, Sports, Horses, Dracula.. etc. Cool ideas... I wanted to try these games.

 

Back in the day, as a small kid, I was quite happy with the family Odyssey 2. lol.

 

Then we got Commodore 64, in 1987 I think? So, that was really fine, and was and still is awesome. Never felt I was missing out, either way. UNTILL my brothers friend was playing NES, then suddenly I was in a TRANCE... every NES game seemed like gold. (no idea why now)

I did have some curiosity about Atari 2600... even though I thought some of the sports games had the scariest (bad) graphics I'd ever seen! lol. Yeah, Odyssey2 had weak "minimal" graphics... but they were larger sprites and less complicated, so you didn't notice the weakness lol.

 

I did play Atari 2600 at my cousins, and saw my brother playing Pitfall, and I remember thinking Pitfall looked really *real* or breathtaking, I'd never seen swamps, vines and alligators like that before. (too small to remember arcades) I went to a few arcades back in 80's, but only looked mostly at the artwork on the sides of each machine or the type of joystick and buttons. Or shared a game with my mother.

 

Going back to Pitfall, I do remember playing Pitfall and falling into the alligators mouth.

I thought crossing those alligator pits was impossible without a vine. hah. Would I want to trade Odyssey 2 for Atari I guess not. but Atari looked good to me. Wasn't till 1991, when I was craving to own one so badly, and found a way to get a used vader console, in the newspaper adds...! What sparked my interested was an old copy of a gamepro magazine from 1989. It had an add for Atari... showing Atari Jr. and 7800.

 

I guess that all,

[JacobZu7zu7]

Well, my buddy that had the O2... K.C. Munchkin seemed kinda cool, but ummm... yeah. That system really blew arse comparatively. Funny... I only remember playing that system once at his house back in the day and I was good with not playing it ever again after that. lol

 

I wouldn't say Odyssey2 blows in comparison. I'd say it would be better then the Atari 2600 IF O2 had the same number of games for it back then that Atari 2600 had!

 

Heck, who could afford all the 2600 games anyhow? Pre-1984. Speakin' era 80's terms... I mean, now I prefer 2600 much more, because I can find all 400 games on eBay. LOL.

 

But back then, if I could choose or own the best games for the systems.

I'd rather play KC then Pac-man. Freedom Fighters over Defender. UFO was a nice

challenge... and Quest for rings was always cool and to watch my brother and his school friends play it. Much better dragon then the Adventure "ducks" and that flickering. I'd probably not lift an eyebrow playing Adventure back then.

 

By the way, which console did you own first Atari or Intell?? Or did you get both same time period?

[BydoEmpire]

I remember going with my dad to Sears or something to look at game consoles, and the family got an Inty for Christmas around '81. It was magical, and we were very happy with it. Our neighbors had a 2600 so we could go over there to play those games if we wanted, but we enjoyed the Inty. A few years later I traded a stack of pirated Apple 2 discs to a friend for his 2600 collection - he didn't want it any more after his family got a computer. No idea where I got the discs from, but I didn't have a computer so it was fine by me. I enjoyed both from that point on, and both of them are in my "top 5 favorite game consoles."

 

Either in that era (Inty vs. 2600) or the next (NES vs. Master System) there was never much "console rivalry" among my friends. We all wanted to play all the games, so if someone had the "odd man out" console it was great.

[gavvv]

I was the prototypical 'atari kid', having gotten one for xmas '77, and having a good ol time as a 7 yr old 'surviving' the blizzard of '78 with combat, air-sea battle & human cannonball and the like. though later on, since we 'already had an atari' as a family we'd never own any of the contemporary consoles. Several friends had Intellivision, and i was definitely jealous in the other direction than the topic header. It was very rare to see a multi-console household. in our fairly large neighborhood among my friends, I can remember several ataris, 3 with intellivision (remember going to jeff's to play burgertime, mlb, nfl, sea battle, deadly discs; going down the street to mike & mark's to play triple action or lock n chase; across the way to pete's to play Bomb Squad & B-17 Bomber), and the occasional 1 or two Colecovisions or Odyssey II. and while I loved to play the O2, especially Take the Money & Run for some reason sticking in my mind, It was always Intellivision I loved from afar, so much so i made sure to get all the M-Network 'equivalents' though except for night stalker it was hardly the same.

 

gavv

[+save2600]

By the way, which console did you own first Atari or Intell?? Or did you get both same time period?

No, I had the 2600 first. Wasn't until probably '81 though. Mid 80's, finally landed an INTV w/ my own money or traded it for something (can't remember).

[Rev]

Our first system was pong sometime in the mid 80's. And then in about 85 or 86 we got an intellivision from some seminar thing or a time share where they gave it to us for listening to them blab for a few hours. We only got a few games. Pitfall,frogger,White Water,Microsurgeon,Donkey Kong. We didnt get a 2600 until around 87 or 88. Games around that time were still available for cheap so we started getting a bunch for both systems. then eventually we got a NES in early 90's. at some point we sold the intv and 2600 at a garage sale. i dont remember what happenned to them. I didnt get another INTV or 2600 until a few years ago and have since almost got every intv game made. and have a great start on the 2600. I still play both systems and modern gaming as well.

[Rik]

I kind of thought of the Intv as a sports game system back then cus all the jocks in high school had one, so it didn't interest me.Of course that's not the case.I had the Intv in the back of my mind, but being young couldn't afford one.I bought a 2600 because of it's great Space Invaders port.I bought an Intv about 9 years ago at the thrift store, and glad i did, fantastic system, i love it.I was content with the 2600, so buying an Intv at the time didn't cross my mind.Thunder Castle is just mind blowing, and imagine more great games that could have been done like that!, but was not to be cus of the crash.I realize the Intv is a rare breed cpu wise, making it too hard or not feasible to program for, too bad, i'd love to see home brews for this system!

Edited October 13, 2010 by Rik

[BassGuitari]

Sort of. When I first decided I wanted to get some old systems around 14 years ago (I can't really say it was my aim to be a "video game collector"...it never really occurred to me at the time that such a thing existed!), the machine I wanted first and foremost was an Atari 2600, but I was interested in anything older than NES -which wasn't "classic" yet. As much as I looked around and asked friends and family in regards to an Atari 2600, I ended up first with an Odyssey 2 that I traded some PSX games to a friend for, and a Sylvania Intellivision.

 

So at first I had an Odyssey and an Intellivision, and I loved them both (still do!), but I still wanted a 2600.

 

(Of course, before I had any of those, I had my NES, Genesis, Game Boy, Game Gear, and Playstation.)

[roberto]

When I was a kid, not really: my cousin had a VCS and I'd play it when we met. Owning one system was enough at the time. Now that I got an Intellivision again, I think I will also get an Atari too for completeness when I have a chance (and, maybe, also a ColecoVision if I have enough space left in my room! )

Edited October 16, 2010 by roberto

[ddaniels]

Good question. I received for the Xmas of '81 an Intellivision. At that time I was only 13 years old and I remember how I begged for the Intellivision because I knew that after seeing both Atari 2600 and Odyssey systems either at my friends or in the stores, I knew the graphics for the Intv were better. I also recall how my friends that had an Atari were jealous that I had the Intv. I swear I was the only person in seventh grade lucky enough to own this sytem so for a while I was considered the cool kid. Everyone wanted to hang out at my house. So as an Intellivsion owner at that time I had no desire to own an Atari 2600 as I was content with what I had. Besides, it's not that I hated Atari but honestly back then no one and I mean no one owned two or more systems at the same time that I knew of. Even if I could have owned an Atari a few years later I still wouldn't have because of how fast technology was changing. Even though I could have picked up an Atari fairly cheap by the mid 80's I was on to the C64 and really didn't want anything to do with my Intv at that point. Fast forward in time now and look at how people own Xbox 360's/Nintendo DS/Wii's all at once. Honestly, it isn't that strange to know people that have multiply systems all at once nowadays. Back in the late 70's early 80's it seemed everyone I knew had one and only one system at that time.

 

I must admit now that I'm in my 40's I'm finding myself buying all of the early gaming systems that I never had. For example, Colecovision, Atari 2600, Genesis, SNES and TurboGrafx 16. I appreciate owning these systems as they bring back the memories of the times spent with friends, which is the most important thing to me.

[OldAtarian]

so if someone had the "odd man out" console it was great we beat him up and stole his lunch money.

 

Corrected!